Good morning from The National on December 25, 2025.
Here is your digest of what is making the headlines in the Emirates.
Palestinian Hamza Mousa Hassan at the UAE's floating hospital in Al Arish, Egypt, in March. Victor Besa / The National
The UAE has treated tens of thousands of Palestinian patients at its field and floating hospitals in Gaza and Egypt as part of a continued humanitarian aid drive.
The steadfast support of Palestine – as it struggles with a humanitarian crisis fuelled by the two-year conflict with Israel – has contributed to the UAE being ranked the world's third largest aid donor this year.
The Emirates provided $1.46 billion of financial assistance to alleviate wars, disasters and other crises across the globe this year, according to latest figures from the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Unocha) Financial Tracking Service.
The UAE had gave Dh9.4 billion in aid to Gaza since the start of the war in October, 2023 up to this month, including more than 100,000 tonnes of supplies and two million gallons of water.
Dr Vivek Mundada, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Medcare Royal Specialty Hospital, with young patient, Mirha. photo: Medcare Royal Specialty Hospital.
A leading Dubai hospital has revealed it will offer a pioneering gene-therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy approved by the UAE this month.
Medcare Royal Specialty Hospital in Al Qusais will provide the newly licensed treatment, called Itvisma, to patients with the debilitating condition who are aged above two years old or weigh more than 21kg.
SMA can cause severe disability and, in some cases, proves fatal in young children.
Dr Vivek Mundada, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Medcare Royal Specialty Hospital, said that the new drug offered “a paradigm shift” by allowing older and heavier children, and adults, to be treated.
Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, inaugurated the Mleiha Dairy Factory and Farm on Wednesday. Wam
Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah, has hailed the launch of a vast dairy farm and factory as a dream 65 years in the making.
On Wednesday he commenced operations at the Mleiha Dairy Factory and Farm, a 20,000 square metre centre which will be crucial to the emirate's food security efforts.
The Sharjah Ruler said the dairy centre, along with other key agriculture initiatives in the emirate, had been established to serve the needs of the community.
“We do not seek profit; rather, we seek health for the people. If we achieve self-sufficiency and produce healthy food, we will have accomplished a great deal for our country,” he said, in comments shared by state news agency Wam.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
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